Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Psychology of Criminal Behavior
This chapter was all about taking a deeper view into different types of homicides that are rare in the sense that they affect a large number of victims in terms of fatalities and psychological trauma. It includes mass murders taking place in school and workplaces. Another area covered by this chapter is investigation, profiling and examples of past perpetrators to help in the deep understanding of their cause of action and triggers that may lead to such tragedies.
The focus of this chapter is classical form of mass murders (Chapter 10, p.310). This leads to profiling which is a large venture that mostly depends on past occurrences and sketchy reports that helps in minimizing the number of suspects to manageable level. It also unveils that this kind of criminal conduct develops from an intricate combination of different factors and conditions that influence violence, for instance, childhood trauma, genetic makeup, and finally their social environment.
The most investigated type of mass murder is serial killing because it is the most horrifying as well as the most fascinating since the killer is unknown. Research has shown that serial killer are hardly women and juveniles though there have been recorded instances. Mass murders on the other hand have received not as much of interest to researchers because in most cases the perpetrators kill themselves in the spree and there’s not much that the authorities or security agencies can do once it occurs. In most cases, the latter type of murders chooses the victims carefully and in most cases people or persons that he blames for his adversity like losing their source of income. Other crimes that may lead to mass murders include product tampering and school and workplace violence (Chapter 10, pg. 312). These cases are usually premeditated and intricately planed.
